CONGRESSWOMAN SHEILA JACKSON LEE MARKS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘BLOODY SUNDAY,’ SALUTING THE COURAGE AND COMMITMENT OF THE ‘FOOT SOLDIERS OF SELMA’

Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee joined with people across the country to mark the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday." On March 7, 1965, a group of brave civil rights marchers marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on their way to Montgomery to demand that African American citizens be finally given their constitutional right to vote. At the bridge, the marchers were attacked by Alabama State troopers, with billy clubs, cattle prods, and tear gas. Many of the marchers were injured, some of them severely.

"I salute the extraordinary courage and commitment of those civil rights marchers, who on March 7, 1965, marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, simply demanding their right to vote," Congresswoman Jackson Lee stated. "All Americans owe the courageous marchers of ‘Bloody Sunday' a debt of gratitude."

"Bloody Sunday" was a defining moment in American history because it crystallized for the nation the necessity of enacting a strong and effective federal law to protect the right to vote of every American. The example set by the foot soldiers of Selma showed everyone, here in America and around the world, that there is no force on earth as powerful as an idea whose time has come.

The images of "Bloody Sunday" galvanized the nation. On March 15, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a Joint Session of Congress, urging Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. On March 21, there was another march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, this time led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – joined by 30,000 people from across the country, including national civil rights leaders and Hollywood and other celebrities, and protected by federal troops. On March 25, the marchers reached the steps of the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, where Dr. King and the other marchers called for voting rights legislation.

"On August 6, 1965, five short months after ‘Bloody Sunday,' the landmark Voting Rights Act was signed into law," Congresswoman Jackson Lee pointed out. "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a landmark law, which has been responsible for most of the progress that has been made to outlaw discriminatory voting practices across America over the last 50 years."

"What was and is so moving, heroic, and awe-inspiring is that the foot soldiers of Selma faced their heavily armed adversaries fortified only by their love for their country and for each other and their audacious faith in a righteous cause," .

The cause endures because unfortunately, in June 2013, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act by invalidating a key section. "Before the end of this year, this Congress must act to enact H.R. 885, a revised, renewed and strengthened Voting Rights Act. The need for action is critical because the full and free exercise of one's voting rights is essential to who we are as Americans and to the strength of our democracy," Congresswoman Jackson Lee concluded.

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Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat representing Houston in the U.S. House of Representatives, is a senior member of the House Committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary. She is the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations.